Academic Year 2011-2012 Overview

The AMP Task Force worked on three major tasks during the 2011-2012 academic year, as outlined below. This work culminated in the May 3, 2012 draft of the Academic Master Plan.This edition of the AMP will be reviewed and discussed at the President's Administrative Retreat on May 8, 2012. It is anticipated that this document will be revised in summer 2012 based on feedback from the retreat.

This plan consists of six basic elements. Each element develops on a previous element with increasing specificity. This type of scaffolding is intended to facilitate a detailed understanding of the AMP, as well as its use by the university community and its integration with existing planning processes and documents.

Framing Narrative – The framing narrative is intended to provide context to the origin, purpose, and use of the plan.

Vision Statement – The vision statement indicates the type of university that SU aspires to be in the future.

Mission Statement – The mission statement provides a brief description of the purpose of the division of Academic Affairs - the academic heart of the University.

Goals and Objectives – The goals and objectives state the overarching academic priorities of the University for the next five years.

Strategies – The strategies and tactics are the activities through which SU will strive to achieve the goals and objectives.

Implemention Plan – This element of the plan will provide recommendations for its implementation and use on an annual basis.

In preparation for this work, the Task Force revisited the mission statement, goals, and objectives (MGOs) that were drafted and revised during the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 academic years. In fall 2011, a revised version (10/11/11) of the MGOs was created and sent to various groups for review and approval. Feedback from these groups was incorporated and revised versions (1/19/12, 2/17/12, 4/12/12) of the MGOs were generated.

Task 2: Create a framing narrative, vision statement, and set of recommended strategies and tactics, and seek university feedback on these items.

The Task Force also continued its work from the 2010-2011 academic year to draft a set of strategies and activities, through which AMP's goals and objectives can be acheived.These elements were generated from the numerous suggestions made by members of the campus community from fall 2009 through spring 2012. During fall 2011, the Task Force divided into five small Working Groups to refine the strategies and tactics initially developed during the 2010-2011 academic year. A revised version of the strategies and the first draft of the suggested activities (formerly referred to as tactics) were made available for the university community to review in spring 2012.

Feedback on the 2/17/12 draft of the framing narrative, vision statement, strategies, and tactics was sought from the university community in spring 2012 through an online survey, open forums, and via email to the Task Force.A total of 232 responded to the survey (44% faculty, 31% undergraduate students, 12% graduate students, 4% staff, 3% managers, 3% external advisory board members, and 1% or less alumni and SU Foundation members). 87% of respondents agreed with the framing narrative, and 79% agreed with the vision statement.The feedback venues and results are summarized in the following table:

Task 3: Create a recommended annual strategy, and seek university feedback on this strategy.

In keeping with Provost Lyman’s charge that the Academic Master Plan “represent a sustainable process”, the Task Force drafted recommendations as to how the final AMP could be used on an annual basis, integrating with current planning and budget processes at the departmental, college, divisional, and university levels, as well as other periodic processes such as 5 year academic program reviews, student learning assessment plans, program accreditation, and Middle States reviews and reporting.